The age of Magic: The Gathering may be coming to an end if one upstart game designer's meteoric rise continues. Allen Varney looks at Donald X. Vaccarino's debut card game, Dominion, and how it's taking over the genre one gaming group at a time.

And now I'm very interested in it. One of the things I could never stomach with Magic was the fact I had to pay for the chance to get a specific card (booster packs just suck so much). I almost thought it'd be easier if I just mailed Wizards my wallet, which I practically did, considering how much I spent. Having them all to begin with sounds like a pretty solid idea.

I used to enjoy playing these types of Collectible Card Games, but I stopped after I got bored of Yu-Gi-Oh. Finding people to play with is sometimes rather difficult. They are expensive hobbies to maintain, especially the ones like Warhammer where you have to buy those miniatures.

Also, everytime a new expansion comes out, if you don't buy it, then you're stuck with an old deck that can be easily beaten by whatever new trump card came in the expansion.

I'm not saying that they aren't fun; they are fun, but it just doesn't seem like a practical long-term hobby.

Dominion isn't a collectible card game. All the cards you need to play are in the main box. There's a standalone expansion that offers different cards, which can be combined with the first box. But there's no collectible element at all.

The comparison to Magic and other trading card games comes from the gameplay, which is similar to that of a trading card game draft tournament.

Very interesting, I used to love Magic: The Gathering, but as it's already been said, I spent far too much cash on random booster packs, this is one of the reasons why this intrigues me so much, having EVERYTHING that you need in the one box is a great idea, makes things so much more balanced, I might very well put a few quid into this, only problem then is trying to find someone to play against :/. (My old friends that I used to play magic against moved away many moons ago)

Besides, my quota of CCGs-That-Aren't-Magic-The-Gathering is full for the year... I need to save money for plastic monsters!

Hey vortexgods, is that a Monsterpocalypse reference? Because if it is I'd say, HELL F*CK'N YEAH!!! Monsterpocalypse is probably doing the equivilant to the collectable minis genere as Dominion is to the card game genere.

Besides, my quota of CCGs-That-Aren't-Magic-The-Gathering is full for the year... I need to save money for plastic monsters!

Hey vortexgods, is that a Monsterpocalypse reference? Because if it is I'd say, HELL F*CK'N YEAH!!! Monsterpocalypse is probably doing the equivilant to the collectable minis genere as Dominion is to the card game genere.

Hi yes, it is indeed a Monsterpocalypse reference, thanks for asking. My collection is small but growing.

I read the first page and a half trying to find the relevance to video games before giving up, I gave up on CCGs a decade ago when I realised I was spending half my weekly pay trying to get that one really good card that no-one would trade and the games store wanted $100 for.

tkioz:I read the first page and a half trying to find the relevance to video games before giving up. I gave up on CCGs a decade ago when I realised I was spending half my weekly pay trying to get that one really good card that no-one would trade and the games store wanted $100 for.

In looking at the article from your perspective, I realize I never explicitly stated, "Dominion is a self-contained non-collectible card game, and everything you need to play is included in the box." Sorry for that oversight. I offloaded probably too much basic exposition to the YouTube video reviews I linked on the first page.

It's odd to me that the default assumption about any card game today is that it must be collectible, but that matches reality. Trading card games are still by far the majority of the market.

HobbesMkii:And now I'm very interested in it. One of the things I could never stomach with Magic was the fact I had to pay for the chance to get a specific card (booster packs just suck so much). I almost thought it'd be easier if I just mailed Wizards my wallet, which I practically did, considering how much I spent. Having them all to begin with sounds like a pretty solid idea.

That's the whole point of rarity, if everyone had the good cards they would be worthless and everyone would make the top tournament winning deck. But buying booster after booster just to get one card isn't very smart at all, trade for it or if you have to buy it online there's plenty of sites that sell singles. Reiterating the point that buy boosters for a specific card is the worst way to get it.

Eh not sure if I'll pick it up, some of the guys I play MTG with are gods in any table top game, one was even ranked 2nd in the world for Hero Clix.

I'm so glad to see reviews for boardgames here, and this one looks very interesting. It seemed pretty clear in the article that it wasn't a CCG, though there was an awful lot of mentioning M:TG so perhaps people just assumed that there was more of a connection to it. I tried getting back into M:TG earlier this year only to realize that I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars every few months just to stay competitive, considering how much more bang for the buck I can get in other forms of entertainment, such as non-CCG games like this.

Honestly I dont like Dominion. AND I DIDNT AT ALL THINK IT FELT LIKE MAGIC. Like, at all. Maybe a bit like Settlers. But not at all Magic. I thought Magic a bit as a battle, but Dominion as a trading game.

I like Dominion but with his approx 1800+ cards (up to Cornucopia) and supposably there gonna be 3 more other expansion after hinterland I don't know where you can put all those card together to bring somewhere

I have those, I think they are 3000 magic card box the one with 3 rows, and I can barely fit up to Cornucopia and I have a side ~300 card small box for the coins / victory cards

I cant imagine adding another 1000 cards to that!

Also with all the expansion some random set up are very boring and don't really mix together and you have to create some kind of "house rule", mine is I seperated most card that have +2 action (like Village) and there always only one in a random set up to add more "fun"